Day 455 of The Stand | RU Class - AM | Live: The River Church | With Guest Speaker Dr. Jerry Savelle

god was a dane that you carry the fire of revival that you carry his word that you carry his holy spirit and he said out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water and everywhere you go your footprints will be marching through because you march into the beat of a different drum and you will obey the voice of god and great and mighty things will be made manifest through your life and if it's the end then so be it we willing to die for the cause of the gospel and you might not think that this is about the gospel but let me tell you this is an insidious plan to shut the church of jesus christ down but i've got news for you and all those that are watching you cannot stop the church it is impossible to stop the church the church triumphant shall stand and he's coming back for a glorious church and we will see another great spiritual awakening that shall sweep across america that shall sweep across the nation the earth and every country shall be shaped but the kingdom of heaven will come out stronger than before you can try to shut it up you can try to structure the church you can try to take away bibles you can try to remove everybody from meeting but you will not stop the body of christ the church triumphant shall stand come on who came hungry and thirsty for jesus come on the bible says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for rise come on children just begin to worship him lord i ask you that you will reveal yourself tonight to these children that they'll know that you're alive and so today you can and that anointing for the caring all the days and now your future presentation this culture that is somehow got it in their heart that they have got the authority to cancel you out and i'm here to remind you you don't belong to this world the world's name is not on you they didn't call you so they can't cancel you if you're willing to get in the fire you're not gonna survive you're gonna cry you're gonna get back you're gonna shake your school you're gonna shake your high school you're gonna shake the whole region you're gonna shake your youth group you're gonna take your church you're gonna shake the adult something happens when you carry the fire and i know there'll be adults like calm down you say i'm not calming down they say you need to turn it down i'm not strong enough i'm turning it up we're going to win soul we're going to cast out together we're going to lay our hands on the stick we're going to see america shaken by the hand of god we'll light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire and truly light the world there is a great need to raise up individuals who will honor and stand up for both the integrity of the constitution and the word of god the river school of government equips believers to take back this nation for jesus christ and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend the constitution of the united states we must be involved on every level of the political process in order to stop the moral decay in this land our ultimate goal is to see a great awakening in america can god do it one more time in this land can god do it one more time in america king god's sin another great awakening in the slave the river school of government raising up strong and godly leadership in the 21st century and we made about 100 million souls billion dollars in the world mission i'm going to be a part of the harvest the nation's shaken if it's the last thing that i do we see churches open up we're gonna see cities open up we have to see nations open up we have to see another great awakening 300 fiery holy ghost evangelists 300 powerful pastors and leaders 390 businessmen darfur and the lowest price the convergence is happening i will not be shaken when troubles come you're the one is jesus my god is jesus my future oh oh my gosh is cheese remember now jesus is is jesus oh me glory now jesus i was dead in sin but i woke up me no foreign jesus hallelujah you've been overpowered like victory is hallelujah victory foreign the same powers is the same power the same power king jesus hallelujah hallelujah so let it down rise we'll watch the giants fall we cannot survive forever let it rise forever foreign this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like we praise you we praise you this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like we praise you we praise you this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like we praise you we praise you this is what freedom feels like this is it sounds like we praise you we praise you we'll see you break down everywhere we'll watch foreign i can't wait for eternity join the song they're already just bow down before your throne see your face jesus i can't wait for eternity join the song we're just about are you jesus king of kings jesus jesus king of standing with those who have heard well done proclaiming forever that you're the one who's faithful are oh jesus jesus jesus jesus worthy lord another glimpse of glory worthy lord forever forever is you see jesus jesus is worthy worthy lord worthy lord jesus jesus jesus king of kings jesus jesus my savior tears is the oh our god who praised his name forever foreign praise is is oh oh foreign so that came crashing over me who compared me is jesus to you jesus you call for songs we your children give you glory jesus she oh you are uh no to you cheers to you jesus oh stand amazed in your prayers there is joy peace jesus there's no one like you you do my two things you're a faithful god there is nothing you cannot jesus is is is oh is it's your name is come on hallelujah hallelujah i love you is oh yes thank you jesus thank you hallelujah is my god oh hallelujah my fortress over and over over and over foreign foreign lord i believe in you is lord you will never fail your name is all powerful are possible foreign oh foreign there is no cause fear believe there is over and over so so of all foreign heart foreign me oh i am oh is me ah ah and i exalt thee the lord me father thank you for your presence this morning among us if you've come hungry this morning thirsty for all that you have let every year be anointed to hear let every heart be receptive receive lord even today deliver and set free yokes are destroyed thank you caused the effect even on this meeting to have far-reaching results even unto eternity we pray and thank you for all that you're doing we give you glory we give you praise and honor for you alone are worthy to receive all glory and honor and our praise but there's none like you in all the heavens and all the earth thank you lord just lift those hands and just thank him one more time just tell him that you're hungry for the word this morning thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord jesus praise god amen amen hallelujah glory to god i want you to greet two or three people tell him you love him jesus loves him and you may be seated well who was with us last night who wasn't with us last night wave your hands who's with us this morning hallelujah well we're so honored to have with us dr jerry savelle this morning you know and uh i've told the story many times and we've we've said the message on sewing and famine um around the world really as the key that broke my wife and myself through back in the early part of 82 and so for us to have him here it's like a dream come true i wanted all the student body how many river university students i get today so i wanted you to be injected with this that injected into us that's carried us now around the world and uh i can just see what god's gonna do with you because we sat where you were sitting at one time and if god can do with this african then i know what he can do with you can you say amen and i believe in a room full of mountain movers uh that was that wasn't a good response i said i believe in a room full of mountain movers and nation shakers and so by the time you leave here you're going to be able to go to places and they can just drop you there with nothing and you won't survive you'll thrive amen so once you welcome all the way from crowley texas dr joe isabel give him a great god bless does it come thank you good morning everybody anybody get a restful night you ready to receive all right smile real big at somebody and tell them you're in the right place today amen and you can be seated hallelujah last night we began sharing with you about three different supernatural visitations i've had of the lord in 52 years of ministry and each one of them as i said last night i did not ask for it i was not planning on it i wasn't expecting it in fact i wasn't doing anything spiritual when it happened i just come out of a meeting with brother copeland just got through teaching an afternoon session in charlotte north carolina 1981. i was tired i've been preaching all week and my wife went in to take a nap i was sitting in the living room of that suite and just gonna relax for a little while and suddenly the chicano glory of god filled that room and then the lord appeared and he said this to me he said my people are experiencing financial famine and i'm going to reveal to you the keys that will bring them out and hold you responsible for teaching them for as long as i tell you to and so i as i mentioned last night i wrote down everything the lord said to me and then he left but the residue of that glory was still in the room and it awakened my wife and she came into the room and said what is happening in here and i said i just had a visitation to the lord and once again she didn't say what did he look like she said what did he say because what he said was more important than what he looked like and so i told her what he said and she said are you going to tell brother copeland about this i said no he and i worked together long enough now where he will pick it up in the spirit i don't have to tell him and so we went over to the service that night and i'm sitting my wife is sitting next to gloria and then i'm sitting next to her and then charles and peggy capps and then normal hayes and uh the speakers in that convention and brother copeland got up to begin the service and he sang a couple of songs and and made a few announcements and then he said let's open our bibles and we're all waiting to where we are to open our bibles and he didn't tell us and he tried again let's open our bibles and we're still waiting you know inquiring minds want to know where do we want what do you want us to open our bibles to and he never said and finally he closed his bible and said jerry god visited you today come tell us what he said and so i went to the platform and began sharing on the message that i entitled sowing in famine and i preached it that night and i'm telling you the anointing of god hit that place and we began to experience some of the greatest financial breakthroughs in that audience and not only in the audience but in my own life personally brother copeland's ministry uh our ministry and everywhere i preached it after that we had the same testimonies and i preached it all over the world in fact shortly after that this was october 1981 about april or so of 1982 is when i went to south africa uh to preach in ray mccauley's faith convention and i preached it while i was there and uh brother rodney and his wife were in the audience and told me later that that's where they first heard the message and uh after that week was up ray called me after i got back home and said we have had some of the greatest financial miracles in our church since you preached that and that's the testimony i got everywhere i preached it i'm still getting testimonies i i i run into people in my travels that say brother jerry i was in that meeting in 1981 and uh i never got to tell you what god did and the miracles that we experienced financially and as i said i'm still receiving testimonies of it uh we've we've eventually we're in the process now of reprinting the book that i wrote about it and once again that message went around the world and it affected the body of christ in a very powerful and a very positive way and then in 1992 i was preaching once again with brother copeland he's never done a believer's convention without jerry savelle amen every time he says how many of you have been to every believer's convention there are there there has been he gloria and jerry savelle raised their hand he cannot do a believer's convention without me amen back when i was working for him when i first started in the ministry uh you know there was just a handful of people knew who kenneth copeland was he'd been in the ministry two years when i went to work with him and i traveled around the country with him and back then we we'd use little rooms and hotels that would hold about 75 to 100 people you know uh most churches didn't want to hear brother copeland because he kicked over all their sacred cows and so we had to go to a neutral territory you know and and people stayed away by the crowds and sometimes there were more people outside picketing than were inside listening and uh so in those early days uh one of my jobs was to set up the auditorium you know set up the sound system get brother copeland to the meeting and we had a little uh tape player on the podium on the platform rather and an amplifier and a couple of little speakers out here and uh after i would open the service and introduce brother copeland i would go back had a little table and i'd sit behind that table put that headset on and wait for my cue because brother copeland may not start preaching right away he might you know share a few things that didn't have anything to do necessarily with his sermon or he might even sing a song before he started preaching and so my cue was to turn the recorder on when i heard these words he'd turn around turn me on jerry that was my cue turn the recorder on make sure i'm getting a good reading good recording and then i'd take the headset off and and listen to him very closely that was my bible school so every time we did three services a day and back when we first started we didn't go anywhere for one night we went for three weeks brother copeland used to say it takes a week to break through all the unbelief it takes another week to get him to listen and the third week we have a move of god okay and so every every meeting was three weeks in in in how long it went and three services a day so every day for three weeks i heard turn me on jerry turn me on jerry turn me on jerry and i'd just like to announce that it hadn't been for jerry savelle kenneth copeland would have never got turned on so that's the reason why he can't do without me today praise god we've been preaching together for 51 of my 52 years in the ministry praise god and it's been it's been an exciting journey i call my life adventures in faith and that's exactly what it's been praise god but in 1992 as i was about to say we were in bournemouth england and back then in those days the word of faith was not very prominent in the uk england and particularly not in london and we'd preached in london before going to bournemouth and the crowds were very small and and uh not many people were receptive to the word of faith and in 1992 we were in bournemouth november 1992. and we had bigger crowds than we had previously had in london the year before and but still the crowds were not quite what we were anticipating and expecting and the auditorium brother copeland had rented would hold a whole lot more people than what were attending the meetings there was still somewhat of a resistance to the word of faith and you know people that didn't understand faith were going around saying don't listen to that faith message that's heresy that's this that and the other and uh anyway we were fighting battles spiritual battles in that meeting that whole week and uh one evening when we got out of the service i went back to my room and i was just putting away my suit and getting ready for bed and i i was sitting in the living room of this this suite i was in and once again the chicano glory of god filled that room and once again the lord appeared to me and this time he said this he said my people are living in survival mode and it's not my best and it's not my will he said teach them how to get out of surviving and teach them how to thrive get into thriving amen and so once again i went to the service the next morning never said a word to brother copeland about it went to the afternoon service never said a word to brother copeland about it but that night he got ready to preach and he he said before open your bibles he said jerry god visited you again last night come tell us what he said and so i began preaching that night about getting out of survival mode not just surviving but thriving how many of you want to get into thriving praise god that's a whole lot better amen now survival is wonderful in some situations because it means that you're still here it means uh you're still fighting you're enduring uh you're hanging on but that's not god's best now i've had some times in my life as a minister as a christian as a man of faith i've had some i've had some times where i was pleased to be able to say i survived you know what i mean man you know some people have the idea that we who preach the message of faith never come under attack your mama are you kidding me we come under attack more than most of you do because to whom much is given much is required i've gone through battles you'll never go through because you're you're not responsible for what i'm responsible for now once i preach it you are so get ready get ready get ready as td jakes would say amen now boy we've had some battles you know and and uh and there were some years at the end of the year i was i was thrilled to be able to to say carolyn we survived praise god we survived but i knew that was not god's best not to not to just end the year saying i survived god's best is for us to thrive thrive means not just have enough but more than enough i like more than enough how about you i i know when i first started out uh when i first left brother copeland's ministry and launched out into my own ministry i remember my my first board meeting and we shared with our board of directors what we had accomplished that year what our goals were for the coming new year and went through our financial statements what it took to operate that year what we believe it's going to take to operate this new year and from time to time i will go back and read those old board meetings for my very first board meeting and what it took to operate a whole year back then i cannot open my i can't open the doors to my ministry for an hour or so with what it takes today it far exceeds what it took back then amen so i had to learn how to thrive not just survive because thriving means you got more than enough and thriving means you've entered into what i call abraham's promise from god i will bless you and i'll make you a blessing that's god's best that you experience the blessing of god and that you do so to a level that you're now able to be a blessing asked the lord years ago what do you mean i will make you a blessing he said i will make you an instrument that will that you will be able to you be used by me to prevent misfortune in the lives of others that's what a blessing is amen that means you've got more than enough to take care of all your needs and plenty left over to help others meet their needs hallelujah and that's that's that's to me the greatest way to live is not only to be blessed but to be a blessing in fact i did a a book years ago i think it's out of print now too years ago about the essence of living is giving that's what real life is all about real life is not how much you can acquire it's how much you give away before you leave thank you for your enthusiasm i said it's real life is not how much you acquire before you leave it's how much you gave away before you leave the essence of living is giving amen so thriving is god's best surviving is wonderful in some situations but it's not god's best amen so i want to talk to you about that this morning and trust that it will inspire you and take you to another level praise god in your faith can you say amen all right now i want to go to first kings chapter 17 first of all this morning first king chapter 17 and we will find a situation where a lady is surviving but when she has an encounter with the prophet of god and he gives her the word of god and she's obedient to it she moves from survival or surviving to thriving now notice what it says here in first kings chapter 17 and uh let's begin reading in verse nine arise get thee to zarephath which belongeth to satan and dwell there behold i have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee now you know the story where the prophet uh has been by this brook and god had the ravens to bring him flesh and food and sustained him and then the brook dried up and notice how god was ahead of the drying up of the brook god had already made arrangements to sustain the prophet even though the brook had dried up god's always working behind the scenes let that sink in for a moment in fact while you're sitting here listening to me god's working behind the scenes god is rearranging things in your behalf god is manipulating things in your behalf hallelujah that's the reason why you should refuse to ever give up i had the word say this to me years ago long long time ago he said determine that quitting is never an option and he said and the reason being is because i will never say he said it's never over until i say it's over and i'll never say it's over until you win amen let me say that again god says it's never over now sometimes it looks like it sometimes it looks like you know the end but don't accept that lie god says it's never over until i say it's over and i'll never say it's over until you win amen so whatever you might be going through right now it ain't over forgive my bad english but you're probably just as country as i am you understand what i mean it's not over it's never over until you win that's god's best for your life win thrive overcome amen can you say amen and so notice here it looks like in this woman's or in elijah's case that when the brook dried up what do we do now it's all over no god was already working behind the scenes and once again i want to tell you while you're sitting here listening to me god is working behind the scenes amen i remember years ago i was building a medical facility in the nation of kenya and i had gone to the president of the nation at that time was daniel moy and i asked him to provide land for us to build this medical facility and i wanted to build it in an area where there were two million people that had no medical facilities at all and so i asked the president for lamb now before i went oral roberts found out i was going and he called me and he said i want to go to kenya with you when you leave i said well brother roberts i wish you'd have told me a whole lot sooner my schedule is absolutely full i won't have any time to be with you i said when i arrive in nairobi i'm going straight to the state house which would be equivalent of our white house and i've got a meeting with the president and i'm taking my my architectural drawings and i'm i'm going to make a presentation about this medical facility i'm going to ask him to give me the land to build it on and once i get it completed i'm going to give it to the nation and i said and then after that i've chartered a plane to fly from nairobi to cuck omega and when i get to kukamega i started an open-air crusade that night and then in the morning i've got pastors meetings in the afternoon i'm i'm dedicating new churches we've built and breaking ground for new churches and then that night we have another open-air crusade i said i won't have any time to be with you would you consider waiting until the next time i go and he said well would you at least ask god if it'd be okay only oral roberts he was the most challenging man i ever met in my life i said well who am i to say no to oral roberts brother roberts if you want to go meet me in dallas on such and such day and we're talking about just a few weeks away and uh and then we'll fly to nairobi and so he and evelyn came and spent a couple of nights with us in our home and then my wife and evelyn took brother roberts knight to the dfw airport and it was so funny you got time for this i'm going to tell it anyway shake your head i don't have to quit until dark hallelujah now listen to this evelyn told me she said no jerry oral is like a kid she said he forgets things and he wanders around and you just have to watch him like a hawk because you'll lose him i thought that was real strange for her to say and you know you you think of oral roberts he got it all together you know and uh she said and you're just gonna have to watch him all the time i said okay and so we got to the airport and we board our flight and our our first flight of this leg is from jfk from dfw to jfk new york and then we catch a flight from jfk to london then from london to nairobi okay that's the best we could do so brother roberts brings this hat how many of you remember tom landry of the dallas cowboys coach of landry he had his favorite hat he wore it every game i met tom landry and he had that hat on when i met him and uh he oral roberts had one just like tom landry's and evelyn said it was his favorite hat and she said just before we board it now jerry he'll lay that hat down and he'll walk off and forget it so be sure you watch his hat for him i said okay so we we get on board and i put his briefcase over head and put that hat on top of the briefcase and uh we flying he's reading the book and he said no when i get through reading this book i'm going to give it to you and i want you to read it before we get to jfk i said brother roberts that's a short time and he said when you get through i'm going to give you an oral exam you didn't you didn't just act like you read it you read it because he gave you a test an oral exam so he got through reading it he gave it to me and man i started reading it and i'm confessing i have the mind of christ i will remember every word i'm reading you know because i'm about to get an oral exam and so i passed hallelujah and we get to jfk and uh i'm i'm in line and this is way before 9 11 and all that you know and i'm in line to get our boarding passes and i said no brother roberts there was a chair some seats right in front of the the desk where you got the boarding pass there was a line of people i said no brother roberts you said right here don't move and i felt real strange you know talking to oral roberts like this this is one of my mentors one of my heroes in the faith and i'm saying or robert don't you move you understand me don't move evelyn warned me about you and so he's sitting there and i got in line and every once when i turn around make sure he hadn't moved he's sitting there and i get up to the desk and i'm getting a boarding pass and when i get the boarding pass i turn around and he's gone but that hat is sitting on the chair and it's almost time to board this is jfk one of the busiest airports in the world people everywhere where's oral roberts and i looked through the crowd and i walked this way to see if he went down to one of the stores or something no i went the other way i couldn't find him it's almost time to board and and and i saw uh some stairs over here to the right of the of the boarding desk i thought well i wonder if he went down those stairs so i walked down there and at the very end of that quarter there was oil roberts standing looking around i said brother roberts i told you not to move he said i had to go to the bathroom i said well it's too late you're going to have to hold it boy we got to get on the board we're going to get on the plane they're about to leave so come on now i had his hat behind my back the whole time he never asked about that hat he totally forgot at that hat just like evelyn told me he would and we get on board and he said i got to go to the bathroom i said you can't you're going to have to wait until the pilot says you can get up and move about the cabin now i put his briefcase overhead and the hat on top of it he still doesn't even know that hat's missing and so i said the captain says you can get up now so you go ahead to the toilet so he went when he came back i had his hat on he sat down and he said i have a hat just like that i said it's your hat you would have left it in jfk he said well thank you for getting my hat for me and it gets funnier as the trip goes on i mean it it was hilarious and uh so anyway we fly on to london and then we fly to nairobi and i told him i said no brother roberts if you if you want to stay here downtown in the hilton hotel until i get back then you're welcome to do that and i'll assign somebody to stay with you and take care of you he said no i want to go with you i said okay so we went to the state house to meet the president and to ask for this land now they've got all these dignitaries and government officials sitting in one area in that room and they've got me and oral roberts sitting across from them at a table they didn't know oral roberts was coming and and daniel moy was delighted to see him because daniel moye had sent a son to america and he went to oru and so he was surprised that oral roberts was there and so we're sitting there and now they've asked me to make my presentation so i put my blueprints up and tell them what i want to do and i notice uh as i said and we we'd like to have about 10 acres to build this on and so forth and i noticed brother roberts is writing on a napkin i see it out of the corner of my eye he's writing on a napkin wands it up and throws it off on the floor gets another napkin and i'm thinking what is he doing this is rude and he writes something wants it up and throws it in the floor and the third time he writes something on here and i'm talking and i'm listening i'm trying to make a presentation and all of a sudden oh roberts hits me on the shoulder puts that napkin in front of my face while i'm talking read this i said brother roberts can it wait and i pushed it back to him read it now it can't wait i said brother roberts i'm in a meeting these are government officials i'll read it when we leave read it now i'm thinking they're going to send us to a dungeon and we will never be heard of again read it now i said excuse me sir brother roberts wants me to read something and he's insisting that i read it now excuse me i'll be right back i said brother roberts i don't know what this says read it i said i'm trying to i don't know what it says i said would you please tell me what it says so i can go on with this meeting he said that's all robert spelled backwards i said is this what you've been working on for the last 30 minutes i said are we boring you he said you bore me he bores me everybody in this room bores me i said we're headed for the dungeon now i said why are we boring you everybody in this room thinks too small now this is my project i'm building this i'm paying for it but all of a sudden he says we can't build that for that on that amount of land we need more land i said what do you mean we pail face i'm the one building this and so i said he said tell him we need 10 times that amount of land i said i feel love the lord for you to tell them we need 10 times he said we can't do that on 10 acres we need 10 times that amount they said no problem brother roberts anything you need amen and then he turned to me and i will i will never forget this as long as i live he turned to me and said don't you ever think small in my presence again now he had a plaque on his desk that said no little plans made here and i have a copy of that plaque on my desk now amen and i also still have that napkin with oral roberts spelled backwards on it and i use that all the time any time i'm in a staff meeting or anytime i'm in the midst of a group of ministers and they start thinking small i just ignore them for the rest of the meeting and i start writing on a napkin jerry savelle backwards see to survive is not equivalent to thrive and the reason that so many of god's people are not thriving is because they think too small amen go to psalm 78 for more we'll come back to first kings go to psalm 78 where did i put my bible okay sounded like the spirit of oral came on me i forgot where my bible was like he forgot where his head was well i'll take that any time praise god all right now listen to this psalm 78. now i like to refer to psalm 78 as a brief history of what god did with the children of israel getting them out of egypt i mean we can read about it in exodus and and so forth and all those chapters that cover it but psalm 78 is like a a brief history you know just just covering it quickly in what he did for them and you'll notice that it says that uh in verse for instance verse 11 they forgot his works and his wonders that he had showed them marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers the land of egypt and so forth and then you drop down to verse 19 it says and yea they spake against god they said can god furnish a table in the wilderness behold he smoked the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people notice if you if you really uh get the heartbeat of what this is saying every time they faced another critical situation they begin to wonder but can he get out of get us out of this and they begin to say yeah but can he do this and each time god would do it now let me ask you this if you had been present that day when they reached the red sea and of course in their minds they're thinking it's all over we we can't go any further see they don't know that god can part a red sea they don't have exodus to read they're doing exodus you and i know he can do it because we can read exodus but they're doing exodus they've never seen him split a red sea before they don't know if he can do it or not as far as they're concerned it's all over and then they get mad at moses he brought us out here to die now this is the same group of people that were begging god to get them out of egypt and now that he's getting them out they get mad at pastor moses i think the happiest day of moses life was the day he died and didn't have to pastor that church anymore amen oh in fact i think i think the children of israel were the first charismatics fickle never know what they're thinking sit there and look at you with a smile and think i hate him when's he going to finish the baptists are beating us to the restaurant oh they grumbled they complained he brought us out here to die and god tells moses what to do splits the red sea and they go across on dry ground with walls of water on both sides now my question is this if you had been in that group would you ever doubt god's ability again when you're walking across the red sea on dry ground and the water's heaped up on both sides don't you know there was at least one gomer powell in that crowd you know gomer gosteen who looked up and said golly shazam looking on her wow i'll never doubt god again but as soon as they got across on dry ground they noticed pharaoh's army was coming right behind him and they started murmuring complaining again we're going to die we're going to die and then god closed the sea swallowed up the armies of egypt and then god's people began to shake their tambourines sing songs and dance and shout and praise god and all that singing dancing shouting and dancing and praising god makes you thirsty and we have no water he brought us out here to die they had dying on their brain all the time particularly when they faced adversity he brought us out here today at least when we were in egypt we had water we had something to eat same group they wanted out of egypt now they won't back in egypt pickle god got him water out of a rock imagine that got water out of a rock would you ever doubt god again but no now they're hungry we don't have anything to eat we're going to die we're going to die why'd you take us out of egypt and god fed them with manna from heaven every time they faced what looked to be an impossible situation god came through for them and then it says and yet they continued to speak against god they said behold he smote the rock and the water's gushed out in other words we know that he can get water out of a rock because we've seen it and the stream's overflowed but can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people if he can split a red sea if he can get water out of a rock is there anything god cannot do and yet they questioned his ability every time they faced an impossible looking situation and then it says in verse 22 because they believed not in god and trusted not in his salvation even though he had delivered them time and time again and then look at verse 35 and they remembered that god was their rock and the high god their redeemer for their heart are they remembered not that god for their heart was not right with him neither were they steadfast in his covenant how oft verse 40 says did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert and then look at verse 41 and they turned back and tempted god and limited the holy one of israel an unlimited god can be limited by his own people and there's three predominant ways that you limit god number one small thinking or negative thinking number two negative speech negative talk and then number three forgetting what he's already done and the point is if he's ever done it before he can do it again amen so notice how you limit god small thinking negative talking and forgetting the miracles he's already performed and god's people do that to this very day small thinking negative talking and forgetting the miracles that he's already done small thinking most of god's people think too small and when they get around people who think big they either admire them or they criticize them amen you know the bible tells us very specifically what kind of people to follow it says right here that that we're not to follow those the example in this psalm 78 that they they didn't have their harder right and they continued to to distrust god but then over in the new testament says follow those who through faith and patience inherit the promises my best friends are not doubters my best friends don't think small my best friends are big thinkers the people i run with think big they speak correctly and they never forget what god's done and their attitude is if he's done it before he can do it again amen amen that's that's one of the things i loved about my relationship with oral roberts is he challenged me always to think big think big think big kenneth copeland who has been my my spiritual father my dear covenant friend has has always challenged me to think big you know it wouldn't surprise me in the least if brother copeland called me one day and said jerry i've been praying and there are people on mars and they need a believer's convict are you going with me i said if you're going i'm going how are we going to go i'm believing for a rocket ship right now come on he's just a big thinker and and i i i love being around big thinkers because they challenge you they bring you up to another level and i remember one time i don't tell brother copeland i said this turn the tape off no he's heard me tell it before one time he called me and said jerry let's go play golf tomorrow i said brother copeland i've never played golf in my life i don't know one thing about golf i said have you ever played no but i read a book by arnold palmer last night i said so now you can play golf you read a book by arnold palmer yeah he said let's go play golf i'll bring the book and i'll teach you i said you don't know anything about he said i read the book so we went to this golf course rented a cart rented the clubs and we go out there on the golf course we don't know one thing about playing golf and he's got that book by arnold palmer and he's he's reading it lesson one you know he said now get out there with your club and i'll tell you what to do so i got my club out and i and i and i'm i'm i don't even know how to hold the club i'm holding it like a baseball bat i played ball all my young life all the way up to a farm league team sponsored by the kansas city royal i know how to hold a bat but i never had a golf club in my hand in my life and i'm holding it like a bat he said no that's not the way you do that's not the way arnold said do it he said and what are you doing standing on that side of the of the tee i said i'm left-handed he said no there's no instruction in here for left-handed take my club i said i can't i can't do anything right-handed i'm left-handed i said read it backwards or something stand on your head i don't know so i finally learned a little bit about how to put the club in my hand and then he told me how to swing and of course the ball i topped the ball and it went over you know just a few yards and so i got another ball out that's one stroke is that right that's one stroke that counts doesn't it even if you don't hit it right it counts correct not with kenneth copeland when he's playing at the end of the first hole he said how many strokes did you have i said 15. he said i had five i said you didn't have five he said i said you topped it you you sliced it yeah i'm learning all these terms he said that wouldn't it didn't count i wasn't ready i said it does count you don't see arnold palmer saying that didn't count i wasn't ready it was it was a joke and people behind us are screaming get off the course get off the course it took us all day we got there at nine o'clock took us all day to play the front nine he said let's go up to the clubhouse and get something to eat i i was thrilled that we were going to the clubhouse now i know there's something i could do eat and we ate he said you want to play the back nine i said brother copeland i don't think we have time to play the black nut back nine i promised carolyn i'd be home before morning and then he called me said let's go play golf again i said you got to be kidding we didn't play golf the last time he said let's go play golf again so we rent the car the golf cart and we're headed out to the first tee and he said i got a call from pat boone last night he plays in this pro-am golf tournament in palm springs and he wants me to come play with him be his partner i said you're not going are you he said yeah i'm going i said you're going to play in this tournament with pat boone in front of all them people he said yeah and i'm confessing me and pat are going to win it i said stop the cart stop the cart right now he said why i said i have stuck with you through thick and thin i have believed everything you've asked me to believe for but you have finally taxed my faith i cannot get in agreement with you there he was still thinking big and he always will i i've never known a kenneth copeland who didn't think big and i've been with him 52 years he's still thinking big amen surviving is not god's best thriving is god's best can you say amen now go back to first kings chapter 17 you thought i forgot didn't you first kings chapter 17 and notice once again when the prophet gets to where this woman is god had already spoken to her that she was to sustain him and notice in verse 10 so he arose and went to zeraphath and when he came to the gate of the city behold the widow woman was there a gathering of sticks and he called to her and said fetch me i pray thee a little water in a vessel that i might drink. and as she was going to fetch it he called to her and said bring me i pray thee a morsel of bread in thine hand and she said as the lord thy god liveth i have not a cake but a handful of mill in a barrel and a little cruise of oil in a uh a little bit of a little oil in a cruise and behold i am gathering two sticks that i may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat and die now it almost appears that god chose the wrong person to sustain the prophet the brook dried up god told the prophet go to zarephath there'll be a widow woman there i've already spoken to her about sustaining you when he gets there sure enough the widow woman's there she's gathering sticks he tells her to bring him some water and then he says and also bring me something to eat and she says i'm gathering just a few sticks and i'm going to make a cake and my son and i are going to eat it and die now she's in survival mode are you in agreement with that she's in survival mode but notice how the prophet responds to that let's back up to verse 11 once again verse 12. and as she was going to fetch it he called to her and said bring me i pray thee morsel bread in thine hand and she said as the lord thou god liveth i have not a cake but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little crucible and i'm gathering sticks that i may go and dress it for me and my son that we may he didn't die and elijah said unto her fear not go and do as thou has said but make me thereof a little cake first it almost appears he's ignoring her now aren't you glad cnn wasn't there prophet takes little widow woman's last morsel of bread that's how they would have seen it he said go do what you said you're going to do but make me a little cake first what's the endeavor to do get her out of survival mode get her out of survival mode and then it says and elijah said unto her fear not go and do as thou has said but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it to me and after make for thee and thy son now notice he's already in thriving mode she's in survival mode but he's trying to get her over into thriving mode because he's already there and he says make me a cake first and then make you and your son a cake she already told him i only have enough for me and my son we've got to get out of that survival mode make me a cake first and then make one for you and your son what's the endeavor you do trying to get her out of survival mode and notice what it says thus saith the lord the barrel of mill shall not waste neither the cruse of oil fell until that the lord's sendeth reign upon the earth and she went and did according to the saying of elijah and she and he and her house did eat many days that's thriving amen now notice what was important here to getting out of survival mode and get into thriving mode number one it took a prophetic word from god a word from the lord that's what this book is for amen when you feel you're in survival mode don't run from the word run to the word amen when you're in survival mode don't say this is the end because it's never over until god says it's over and he'll never say it's over until you win amen never never never accept defeat or failure that's not god's best for your life amen and notice once she was able to get her out of survival mode then she entered into thriving mode she and her house did eat many days amen god performed miracles in her behalf and he's still the miracle working god can you say amen to that amen now let's let's look at something else here and i want to make some statements to you before i ask you to turn to another verse i said don't ever accept defeat or failure it's not god's best for our lives defeat is defined as an unsuccessful ending to a struggle of confrontation defeat an unsuccessful ending to a struggle or confrontation accept failure failure is defined as being unable to accomplish an intended purpose goal or assignment unable to accomplish an intended purpose goal or assignment and neither of these are god's best for our lives not defeat not failure isaiah chapter 54 verse 17 says no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn this is the heritage of the servants of the lord and their righteousness is of me saith the lord the amplified bible says this triumph over opposition is the heritage of the servants of the lord triumph over opposition is your heritage it belongs to you can you say amen uh when when my dad passed away went to heaven uh i did his homegoing and my dad was my closest friend dearest friend all of my life even in my young years i'd rather be with my dad than any of my classmates most of my classmates like being with my dad as well my dad he he was trained by general motors in 1953 to become a corvette specialist so dad worked on corvettes all of my young life and then i fell in love with corvettes as a young boy and told my dad as soon as i get old enough to get a driver's license i'm going to drive corvettes and i'm going to drive them for the rest of my life how many of you remember back in the day if you're old as i am in the day there was a tv series called route 66 and these two guys buzz and todd and buzz they rode around in a corvette you know up and down route 66 that was my favorite show and i tell my daddy soon i get old enough i'm doing route 66 in my corvette and i've done it praise god and uh the the the owner of the chevrolet dealership where my dad worked in shreveport louisiana his name was howard crumley and mr crumley knew how much i love corvettes and every year when the new ones would come out he'd tell my dad bring jerry up and let him sit in this new corvette and i'd go up and he'd be sitting in the showroom mr crumley would say get in the driver's seat jerry and he'd sit next to me he said can you see yourself driving these when you get old enough i said yes sir i'm going to drive them and i'm going to drive them till i die he said i believe that boy you really believe you're going to drive corvette i said i do mr crumley i wish he was still alive to see i've been driving corvettes all my life amen in fact i have one exactly like the one that i said in that day when he said that to me same color everything amen it was a 1957 corvette and i still have it today and so my dad was a corvette specialist not only that my dad raced automobiles he did track dirt track oval track he if it wasn't if if the season wasn't if the season was finished in that area then he drove sports cars on sports cars track in fact i have a memory of him competing against carol shelby one time and i have a picture of carol shelby winning that race on look magazine and that's where it took place you'd never guess in a million years it took place on kenneth copeland's property because brother copeland's property used to be a military air base and when the air base is shut down after world war ii many of them became sports car tracks and that track or that base became a sports card track and on the front of this magazine i still have it it says carol shelby taking first place at eagle mountain raceway amen where brother copeland's property is now so my dad competed against carol shelby uh how many of you remember the indy 500 there was a guy one year called uh fireball roberts my dad used to compete against fireball roberts so dad was into speed and i'm not talking drugs i'm talking horsepower i don't know anything about speed you'd have to ask jesse diplomats about that but anyway because jesse took trips all over the world and never left his living room you know but dad saw to it when i was growing up i never owned anything slow no his son would not own anything slow my first bicycle he put a bigger sprocket on it so it pedaled faster than anybody else's my first motor scooter he boarded out and put a model a cam in it uh valves in it and so it would run how many of you remember cushman motor scooters i started out with cushman and dad saw to it he'd outrun all the other cushmans in our neighborhood and then when i got old enough got my first car it was a 57 chevrolet and dad board the engine out put a four speed in it so i'd outrun every 57 chevrolet in town amen so dad sought to it i never owned anything slow i've been redeemed from slow amen in fact i have some pretty hard cars right now i've collected classic corvettes and i've collected gtos when i when carol and i first married i was racing at 65 gto dad did oval tracks and sports cars i was into drag racing and so uh i've just never owned anything slow when carol and i first married she had a falcon with a six cylinder and she wanted me to go to church with her in that car i said i'm not going in that car she said why not i said i have a reputation in this city i cannot be seen in your car she said well we're not going in your car you'll erase everything between here and the house and the church i said you got that right and a woman in a volkswagen is not going to beat me to the next light and i was driving a 65 gto you know and oh she didn't like riding with me but i'm i said all that to say this when my dad went home to be with the lord somebody asked me what did your dad leave you and they thought i was going to say a trust fund or or you know a bank account that he had set up for me and my sister or something and i said the ability to drive fast that's my heritage the ability to drive fast i have a corvette z06 and uh oh it's hot oh it's hot and i'll call brother copeland sometime and i'll say brother copeland anything going on out at the airport today no why i feel a need for speed i'll get out there on that on that runway in that z06 and i'll turn on the one of the one of the themes in top gun i went through the danger zone i'll turn it up as loud as i can and take off down that runway just as fast as i can get that z06 i've got it up to 140 before i had to shut it down because i was running out of runway and it wouldn't the yoke wouldn't come back you know i got brother copeland in there one time i said hang on fasten your seatbelt i turned i went through the danger zone when i got through he said that's a little rascal run won't it i said you want to drive it he said i better not he said i promised god i wouldn't sin today amen our heritage triumph over opposition is the heritage of the servants of the lord it's your heritage amen why would you ever want to accept defeat if triumph over opposition is your heritage why would you want to think small if triumph over opposition is your heritage why would you want to talk negative if triumph over opposition is your heritage can you say amen look at your neighbor and say this message was meant for you i hope you're listening now the message translation says it this way this is what god's servants can expect i'll see to it that everything works out for the best hallelujah that's good isn't it i'll read that again this is what god's servants can expect i'll see to it that everything works out for the best if god has made that promise to you why would you ever accept failure or defeat if that's god's promise to you that everything is going to work out for the best then why would you ever think small again why would you ever talk negative again can you say amen are you listening to me this morning does that sound like failure or defeat to you it certainly doesn't to me first corinthians 2 14 says now thanks be unto god which always causes us to triumph in christ always does the word always mean here in florida what it means in texas in texas it means no exceptions is that what it means here always notice thanks being a god who always causes us to triumph always now i've heard christians say well brother jerry don't you know it's the will of god that we win a few lose a few no i don't know that and it's not the will of god we win a few lose a few it's god's will we win every time can i get a good shout amen it's god's will we win every time amen god god doesn't play nine innings or four quarters he plays until we win amen until we win however long it takes and i'll drink to that by the way you have to clarify everything these days it's water and honey it's not jerry's home brew and i'll drink to that again it helps soothe my throat hallelujah amen so triumph always is the will of god for our lives it's god's best thinking small is when a few lose a few and i don't think like that i play until i win i am going to be able to say thanks be unto god when it's all over he made me triumph again and he makes me triumph always can you say amen to that and if you can give him a good shout of praise hallelujah amen proverbs chapter 24 and verse 16 i love this verse it says for a just man follows seven times and rises up again a just man followed seven times and rises up again that's a perfect example of resilience we all get knocked down from time to time i've i've experienced setbacks just like you have but once again setbacks are not final they can become a stepping stone to a greater victory can you say amen a just man falls seven times and riseth up again somebody said to me brother jerry well well i'm that man i have fallen seven times what i do now i said the way to overcome falling seven times get up 8. amen just keep getting up just keep getting up some of you are familiar with our ministry and you've probably heard me say this before i've been a boxing enthusiast all my life i love boxing you don't understand i love boxing i love boxing i boxed in college my dad boxed in the navy in world war ii and in order to appreciate the story i'm about to tell you you have to understand i haven't always been the big hunk of a man that i am today i used to be little you don't understand little i graduated from high school weighing 92 pounds the girls were bigger than me i started college weighing 101 pounds i got married and i weighed 112 pounds i looked like i was 14 years old in our in our wedding pictures i got called up for active duty went to fort dix new jersey weighing 114 pounds when i finished my term i came out weighing 121 pounds those three square meals a day was good for me when i went to work with brother copeland i weighed 127 pounds i was 23 years old he was 33 years old he used to say i've lost in weight three men the size of jerry savelle but i was always strong instead even though i was smalling stature i was always strong one of my friends i hadn't seen since high school i ran into him in fort worth and my wife and my daughters were with me and he said jerry was the strongest little man i ever knew and i remember him calling me that all the time he's the strongest little man i ever knew and joe here my international director is also first cousin and joe and i uh used to box each other he lived in oklahoma i lived in louisiana every time we'd go to oklahoma joe had some boxing gloves and he'd have him out waiting for us and and his mama didn't like for me and him boxing each other because we'd wind up getting mad and trying to hurt each other and she said if you boys ever get mad again i'm going to burn these gloves one day i wanted to go to oklahoma and box and the gloves had been burned but we'd walk up down his road find trying to find somebody to box us and usually we won but there were one old boy he was tall lanky and his arms were way out here his reach was i couldn't get inside every time i tried to get inside he just beat the tar out of me he's the only one in henrietta oklahoma that i couldn't beat and then joe would tell him my cousin is a golden glove boxer i never fought in gold and gloves but that got that got us opportunities to fight more you know thinking i'm going to knock out a golden glover i was when i was in college i boxed and i did pretty good i had a pretty good record going i'd come home from from college to visit my parents my nose would be over here eyes swollen shut you know bruises all over my face dad say son what are you learning in college i said i'm trying to learn how to duck dad he said well son did you win if i didn't win i didn't talk about it i said i won't talk about it but when i won he couldn't shut me up i relived at every moment you know well over the years excuse me over the years i've had the privilege of going to training camp with some professional boxers uh i've mentored professional boxers in the word of god let them led several to the lord and then went to training camp with them and mentored them in the word of god and so i've had the privilege over the years i don't go to them anymore but used to i went to some of the greatest championship bounce of the decades i got to go to sugar ray leonard and thomas hearns fight for the undisputed welterweight championship and it took place in las vegas and i went there to watch that fight on my way to palm springs to teach with fred price and his men's conference but i stopped in vegas to go that fight and because i was looking forward to it i was i was really there it was the fight of the decade and uh usually because i was friends with a man who worked for the promoter bob arum they would send me tickets free ringside seats hallelujah and usually i'd be sitting not all the time but usually i'd be sitting right behind muhammad ali and so uh we're at that fight with sugar ray leonard and thomas hearns and of course thomas hearns winning the fight and i believe it's around the 11th round when hearns went back to the corner angelo dundee said you're blowing it son you're blowing it and leonard got up off the off the bench and went into the next round and eventually knocked tommy hearns out and won the fight became undisputed champion i was there and then later sugar ray leonard fought roberta duran in montreal canada i was not able to go to that fight because i was preaching brother copeland in anaheim california i almost sent a tape for my service and go to montreal because i wanted to see that fight in a big way but i didn't get to go to that one and sugar ray leonard lost to durant but the rematch was going to take place a few months later in new orleans in the superdome and i told my wife and daughters uh i'm gonna take you on a vacation to new orleans really i said yeah we're gonna spend a few days in new orleans but i had intended to go to that fight i had ringside seats now i had been in south africa just before that fight took place out to ray mccauley and i told ray i said no ray i'm going to be in the superdome at the sugar ray leonard thomas i mean roberta duran rematch and if they show muhammad ali usually they do they pan the camera on him if i'm sitting behind him you be watching now because i'm going to lean around him and say hey ray so we went i spent a couple of days just vacationing with the family then i went to the fight that night the place was electrifying this is the fight that everybody's waiting to see roberta duran little hands of stone one of the greatest lightweight champions in the history of boxing and he had beat sugar ray the first time and now it's the rematch sugar ray tried to fight duran's fight be macho and he lost this time he's fighting his fight and duran got so frustrated by the eighth round he turned his back on leonard and said to the referee no moss no moss and walked into the corner meaning no more everybody was shocked particularly everybody in that arena nobody could believe this is this is mr macho himself nobody could believe that roberta duran quit ray arcell his trainer one of the greatest trainers in the history of boxing was pleading with him please don't quit i could hear every word in the corner don't quit why did you quit no moss of course he claimed other things were going on but i was there i saw it he was frustrated sugar wave was making him look like a fool making him look like an amateur and he quit now when he quit the best fights took place in the arena i mean people got mad people betting a lot of money on this in fact when i went in i sat down in my seat and the man next to me on my right and the man on my left they they both were high rollers out of vegas and the man to my right said to the man on my left the man on my left uh was a black gentleman and the man on the right he looked like he was from amarillo texas i nicknamed him i called him amarillo slim and superfly how many of you remember superfly he looked like superfly you know and and and amarillo said to superfly talking over me who you think is going to win and superfly said sugar ray leonard amarillo slim said no duran is going to whip him again superfly says put your money where your mouth is amarillo says how much superfly says 5 000. his amarillo says you don't have much confidence in your fighter do you he said make it ten thousand amarillo said it's a bet and they said who's going to hold the money and they both looked at me they say who are you i said i'm jerry savelle what do you do i'm a preacher now this is when you this is when you could still trust preachers with money they said well we can trust the preacher and amarillo put 10 000 bucks in my right pocket and sh superfly put 10 000 in his pocket and the cameras are on muhammad ali and it looks like jerry savelle's got a drug deal going down here and i leaned over and said all right i called ray after that after that match and he was in i think it was like three o'clock in the morning that they were in ray's living room watching it and ray jumps up says there's jerry there's jerry there's terry and i said did you see it all no we just saw you behind ali thank you praise god but when that when when roberta duran quit i mean it the people got mad on amarillo and superfly they both are mad in fact they took their money back quickly out of my pocket like they tore my pocket off getting it and i turned around and i'm telling you fights broke out all over that place cops came in there with billy clubs beating people in the head and i it got dangerous i got up and moved up close to the ring apron because they were fighting right behind me and i'm just watching it and then i i looked and i'm standing right next to howard cosell i thought dear god this is the worst place in the building everybody hates howard cosell they coming after him next you know no moss now they just recently made a movie about that and people today particularly boxing enthusiasts people who followed the sport when you say roberta duran even though the man had 119 professional fights won championships in four divisions had like 103 knockouts went on after that fight and fought in heavier divisions and won championships there most people don't remember any of that all they remember is no moss the one he quit in don't let that be your legacy amen don't let that be what people remember you about that you quit in the tough one that you quit under pressure no let them remember you as having done all to stand he stood up when it got tough he got tougher hallelujah amen come on lift your hands and say that's me you're talking about and give the lord a good shout praise god amen now i got to tell you this when you got time sure you do shake your head yes one of my old time or favorite old-time boxers was archie moore and uh my dad and i used to listen to to archie moore's fights on the radio before we ever owned a television now i was born in the 40s and i you know grew up in the 50s and we we didn't get a television set there was one person on our street that had a television set and on saturdays they would put it in their living room and invite the rest of the neighborhood to bring their own lawn chairs and set them outside and we'd watch tv on saturday but before that the fights came on the radio and dad and i would be hovered around that radio listening to joe lewis fight rocky marciana sugar ray robinson the absolute finest pound-for-pound fighter in the history of boxing and then archie moore i loved archie moore they called him the old mon goose and uh he had over 200 professional fights and lost very few but in 1958 now by this time we got a television set and and it's on television and dad and i are watching it and he fought he was the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world and he was fighting a man from canada by the name of darrell and this guy knocked archie down three times in the first round and archie got up he knocked him down again in the fifth round and archie got up but by the 11th round archie's holding his hands up in victory he wouldn't quit amen wouldn't quit knocked down three times in the first round and wouldn't quit now years later a long time later i was asked to come and do a conference with about 2 000 professional and collegiate athletes and tom landry was one of the speakers uh no anyway i'll think of his name later but the night that i spoke i told this story about archie moore and i said at the end of the story i said archie must have read micah 7 8 before that fight micah 7 8 says rejoice not against me o my enemy for when i fall i shall arrive i said aren't you must have read that verse because he he got knocked down three times in the first round another time in the fifth round and just kept coming and finally won the fight in the 11th round i said archie must have read micah 7 8. much to my surprise in the back of the building a man stood up and said you too young to remember that fight how do you remember that fight and it was archie moore archie moore was in my meeting and i got to meet one of my childhood heroes that night he just wouldn't quit amen what a legacy he just wouldn't quit and christians today are quitting over the dumbest things it amazes me people that come up to you and say brother jerry i don't know where i'd be today if it wasn't for your ministry i got saved under your ministry i got filled with the holy ghost under your ministry i learned the word under your ministry brother jerry i just love you so much it's almost to the point to where i don't want anybody telling me that again because that's the last time i ever see them people don't last getting quiet in this presbyterian church i said people don't last you never know what is lurking in the minds of a charismatic what are you thinking right now i have no clue and you can put a big smile on your face and shake your head and say amen to everything i say and not believe any of it i i do surveys every once while i'm going to churches i was in a a baptist church and i just started walking around i said how many of you people in here have been going to this church for a long time that several hands were lifted so i just went back to one man about four or five rows back about where this man is in the purple shirt i said sir how long have you been going to this church 20 years is that wonderful 20 years yeah how long have you been saying 20 years i got saved here and you you've been coming 20 years yes sir i said you believe everything the pastor preaches no said in front of the pastor he said sometimes he makes me mad but i go home i read the bible find out he was telling the truth i'll come back and apologize i said wonderful the bible says that the the faithful shall flourish sir get ready you're going to flourish hallelujah i left there and went to a pentecostal church i decided to do the same survey how many of you been in this church for a long time several hands went out i walked back to a man i said and sir how long you've been saved or how long you've been going this church 25 30 years how long have you been saved i got saved in this church got filled with the holy hostess church shanda shandai hallelujah i said you believe everything the pastor says well so far he's been telling the truth i said wonderful then i left there and went to a word of faith church did the same survey how many of you been in this church for a long time a lot of hands went up i went back to a man about three rows back and i said sir how long have you been going to this church he said this is my fifth one i said your fifth church how long have you been saved three weeks three weeks and this is your fifth church he said yeah i'm looking for the perfect church i say well sir i have some news to tell you when you get there it won't be perfect anymore because you're a quitter amen you'd be surprised at what people quit over now i know nobody can relate to this in this church because you've been coming here ever since this church started and you always love pastor rodney nobody ever gets mad at pastor rodney would i be safe in saying that if everybody who's ever come to this church and declared this is my church and you're my pastor if they were all still coming would this building hold them no that building out there wouldn't hold them where are they where are they and that's that's the story of every church i preach in i've preached in 3 500 different churches in america alone in 50 years and it's the story of every church i've been to where are they what what drives them away most of the time adversity what they're going through and sometimes when they come to church the pastor is not saying what they want him to say they they they want massaged bless your darling heart poor thing nobody's ever been through what you've been through and i don't think pastor rodney's that way i'm certainly not that way i don't i don't i don't massage people with soothing words feel sorry for you i'm pretty direct get back on your faith don't quit having done all to stand stand now a lot of times that's not what they want to hear they want you to cry with them i want you to feel they want you to pity them feel sorry for them if archie moore had waited in the corner for the referee to come over and say poor thing you're the undisputed heavy light heavyweight champion of the world i'm so sorry you got knocked down three times in the first round bless your darling heart that is not what archie needed to hear he's hollering at he's here in the corner say get up when you fall you shall arise amen how many of you remember when george foreman retired became a preacher in the streets of houston texas i met george in the streets in houston texas he used to go to some of these big championship fights before he retired and then he made a comeback and he's old man as far as boxing is concerned made a comeback and got to fight again for the heavyweight championship against a man from detroit named michael moore jesse and i were preaching in detroit when that fight took place and we got out of the service that night and got back to our room and i said jesse this is going to be a fight i said let's order something to eat have some popcorn we're gonna have a show tonight just over there trying to keep his eyes open i said jesse wake up don't miss this one punch from george foreman can end it all he he hit like a mule and michael moore was winning the fight the whole fight but then one punch one punch well he's right-handed one punch and more was out i jumped over the coffee table screaming and jesse was asleep he jumped up when i jumped up screams what happened what i said you missed it i told you not to go to sleep one punch and it was over and he regained the heavyweight championship as an old man as far as boxing is concerned and guess who was in his corner cheering him on as his main trainer archie moore the old mon goose i refuse to quit man the when i fall i shall arise man see that's the kind of people you want in your corner when you feel like quitting you won't you want to when i fall i shall arise people in your corner encouraging you to get up it's not over it's not over you can still win can you say amen lift your hands and give the lord a good shout of praise hallelujah amen amen praise god praise god all right now let me get into some things here that i wrote down early this morning many of god's people today are living in what i call survival mode meaning they are just endeavoring to hang on or to continue to exist in spite of the difficult challenges that they're facing on the other hand as i mentioned earlier survival is not entirely bad but it's not god's best i want god's best amen i want god's best and pursuing god's best doesn't happen overnight and it doesn't happen by making quitting an option so even though there are some positive sides to being able to say i survived but it's still not god's best amen once again god wants you not to just survive but he wants you to thrive hallelujah some christians think that living in survival mode is there a lot in life meaning that they just have to accept it as the way it is and never hope that it will ever change or even get better that's not god's plan for your life amen but again i say this is not god's best we were made to be overcomers we were made to be winners amen matthew 16 18 jesus made this statement i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it they shall not prevail against it the amplified says they shall not overpower it so that doesn't sound like to me that jesus wants us to just survive he wants us to overcome he wants us to rule and reign hallelujah first john chapter 5 verse 4 which has been my favorite verse ever since i came to the lord in 1969 and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith amen even our faith people that live by faith should have this testimony i'm overcoming the world i'm overcoming the world hallelujah overcome means to win the victory over opposition it also implies to get the best of or to master every adversity that's going beyond just surviving wouldn't you agree once again don't ever accept failure and defeat that's not god's best and it's not god's plan for your life the lord said to me many years ago and i've i've already shared this with you but it's worthy of repeating it's never over until i say it's over and i'll never say it's over until you win can you say amen hallelujah god will never say it's over until you win say this with me it's not god's best for me to just survive it's god's best for me to thrive lift your hands and give him praise for it amen hallelujah thank you father thank you father and once again to thrive means to prosper it means to flourish it means the state makes steady progress it means to increase and it means to expand that's god's best for our lives amen if you are the same at the end of this year that you were at the end of last year that's not god's best if you can't look back over this year and say my my look what the lord has done look what the lord has done hallelujah as i said last night in 2020 from march to december we broke all records in our ministry every financial record we'd ever had previous to that went way beyond that broke them all and coming into 2021 the same way praise god amen we're not surviving in a pandemic we're thriving in a pandemic and i give all the glory to god it's not that i'm so good and i'm so smart it's because he's so good and he's so smart and the smartest thing i ever did was hook up with him amen i like to say uh you know i i didn't i wasn't serving the lord the first 23 years of my life but the last 52 i have amen so i've only been dumb for 23 years i got smart 52 years ago amen and i like to say my mama didn't raise no food i'm going to stick with what i'm doing because it's working hallelujah amen are you hearing me this morning praise god it's not god's best that we just survive it's god's best that we thrive hallelujah let's stand to our feet praise god hallelujah how many of you in here this morning maybe you weren't here last night you're in here this morning and and you need a financial breakthrough you know in our offices around the world the the three most often requests that we get number one is people writing us to pray for their finances because they know that's one of the messages that i preach i preach and teach on the laws of prosperity the laws of walking in divine favor so the number one request is pray for our finances then number two pray for my healing and number three it has to do with family you know pray for my son's salvation my daughter's salvation something like that but always number one financial i need a financial miracle i need a financial breakthrough so that's not uncommon and it's also not uncommon for god to come to their rescue amen hallelujah the bible says many are the afflictions of the righteous but it doesn't end there so don't stop reading the next word is but i'm not an english scholar but i did learn when i was in school that bud is a conjunction and that means he's not through talking and thou shalt not stop reading many are the afflictions of the righteous but the lord delivers them out of them all amen the lord delivers them out of them all that word all is kind of like that word always amen no exceptions god delivers them out of them all can you say amen hallelujah the apostle paul writing to his son in the lord timothy talked about the persecutions and the the adversities and the challenges that he went through but then he says but the lord delivered me out of them all that's god's best is that you be delivered out of them all can you say amen so if you're indicating that you need a financial breakthrough a financial miracle i know somebody personally who can help you amen i i've been i've been hanging out with him now for 52 years not only that i read his book it's a bestseller hallelujah it'll not teach you to play golf like arnold palmer but it'll teach you how to be a winner in life hallelujah amen praise god all right let's lift those hands again if you need a financial miracle financial breakthrough uh eric come up here for a moment and i want you to share a quick testimony of what's just recently happened with you okay can we get a mic for him so during the pandemic the the business that i'm in uh involved with schools and and helping sports teams raise money well most a lot of schools shut down and so when we uh navigated through this this time it was trusting god and and god just began to take us through these things and well this past six weeks let me stop you for a moment did you ever stop sowing during that time i did we didn't stop sowing and that's that's one of the things that he's talking about about not quitting is not quitting what you know to do is right and so before i went it's about a six week period from mid-july to the end of august and before i went the lord said sow a seed for what for the harvest that's about to come and uh so i did and and the amount that he told me to sow and i'm telling you this early this year dr sabel said this was going to be a year a first a year of unprecedented events a year of surprises and i've been doing this business for almost 24 years now and i was telling them the other night that i've had times where i've had a lot more participants but to make a long story short i saw the best sales that i have ever seen in 24 years coming really still in a involved in a pandemic in a state that's that is still kind of uh where they're being you know not free yeah and i was amazed i was absolutely amazed and and so i went to him i said this is what i'm believing for this is the seed i'm sowing and this is what i'm believing for and i mean we sailed way past that and god did exceedingly abundantly above all everything that we could ask or think and even during the pandemic you know i i was just sitting over there thinking as you were talking i kind of moped around a little i didn't know if you noticed i noticed you didn't know you didn't voice it to me though i did but uh i'm in bible school too i'm taking jerry savelle bible school and uh well one of the lessons was about talking about the fruit of spirit and having the right perspective well when school shut down that affected my business but and and so all i could think about was how god was providing for me through my business but i want you to know that during 2020 right in the middle of a pandemic we sold two homes and bought a home and so in the in our move to to texas we rented a house and we we found a house that had been out for listed for six seven months we sold two homes well i kept saying yeah my bit my income was cut in half my business was cut in half and so i i listened to a bible school lesson that talked about having the right perspective and the lord said to me he said you've been going around saying that you made half the income that you made he said how much you make on those homes i said oh yeah he said why don't you add that to the income that you made now how was 2020 a year for you i said well uh um it's the best year i ever had amen but we never stopped we never stopped sowing we never stopped giving in fact when that pandemic hit and and the schools began to shut down we we sold out we sent out seed uh personally to pastors to the church everywhere we could sow we sowed and that's exactly what you're teaching us today and that's what that widow woman did even to the last meal that's right amen amen and great victories came great and some firsts a lot of firsts yeah praise god let's give the lord praise for that amen hallelujah and the reason i wanted to wanted eric to share that to show you that it doesn't just work for a selected few it doesn't just work for preachers i know a lot of preachers is not working for because they're not believing for it god's no respecter of persons he can he has ways of getting finances into your hands that you couldn't dream up in a thousand years amen let me share this testimony with you while you're still standing lord said to me and i mentioned it last night when i first went in the ministry he said you will not be able to fulfill what i've called you to do without airplanes in your ministry and he said i don't want you ever flying airplanes with debt on them believe for them debt-free so in the natural when he said that to me i had notes on everything i had note on my house i had note on my car i had a note on the refrigerator i had a note on the television i think i still owed three payments on the broom and anyway we were in debt up to here and i had just shut my business down and i had business debts and now god's talking to me about debt-free airplanes see god god is not a small thinker and you hang around him he'll elevate your thinking amen and so i started believing god for debt-free airplanes now i didn't need them right away when i first went to ministry nobody knew i existed and every once while i'd get an invitation and from that meeting somebody else would invite me to come and over a period of time he got to where i couldn't get to all the places i was asked to preach now i need an airplane i can't drive to all the places you can't be in los angeles one night in new york city the next driving you know and so i said lord this would be a wonderful opportunity for those airplanes to start manifesting and that was 1975. i've been in the ministry since 69. so we're talking a short time later and uh that first airplane manifested debt free a little cessna 310 i was so thrilled i was so happy i mean it was so miraculous and my first trip in it now i had been flying with brother copeland and his plane and setting up the cockpit with him i got the bug and wanted to learn to fly so by this time when my first airplane manifested i had been taking flying lessons and so my first trip was the next morning to saint simon island georgia i'm sitting in the cockpit of this little 310 i couldn't wipe the smile off my face i'm thinking look at this country bumpkin setting up here flying in a debt-free airplane hallelujah and i flew it for a year and the lord said now sell it and give the money to two other ministries that are that are hurting financially and you will save their ministries so i sold it the only one i ever sold i sold it and i divided the money and put it into two other ministries and i might add those two ministers still going today praise god amen now now my schedule didn't change i still need an airplane i need one even worse now after i gave my airplane you know so didn't put the money in those ministries i need it worse now than i did before because you know my itineraries is continually full i can't get to all the places i'm asked to preach so i'm believing god for my next airplane didn't happen overnight didn't happen in a month didn't happen in a year but praise god that second airplane manifested debt-free hallelujah debt-free i began flying it and i was having a conference in fort worth and i invited buddy harrison and and uh happy caldwell to be my guest speakers and i'm sitting in that meeting where i'm emceeing the meeting and all of a sudden i heard the lord say give happy your airplane i said well happy come on up here you're preaching tonight but before you preach and i had to i had the keys to it in my pocket and i had the title to it in my office and i said happy i know you've been believing for an airplane and uh i want to present you your first airplane here's the keys to my airplane it's now yours praise god amen and happy obviously he had he had a oh he was so excited he could hardly preach his sermon that night but anyway now i've sown that airplane it didn't change my schedule i need one now worse than i needed that one i'm believing god for the next one and i'm preaching with kenneth hagin i told part of this last night brother hagin called me up on the platform said brother jerry god just told me to give you my airplane and it was debt-free praise god the third airplane the third airplane and now this is a cessna 421 golden eagle cabin class pressurized cabin in the south we call that in high cotton now man i'm setting up there in this cabin class twin engine turbo 421 and i kept thinking god you are so good in texas we say it this way who to thunk it and i'm enjoying that airplane and then a few years later i'm preaching in little rock and happy caldwell's conference along with buddy harrison and ed dufresne and lester sumrall and the night ed dufresne was preaching and i had just had this the the engines overhauled on this 421 20 hours on the engines new paint job new interior new avionics it was one fine machine and i'm sitting there listening to ed dufresne and the lord said ed's hurting he doesn't think because he's hurting that i'm hearing these prayers i say well lord what do you want me to do about that he said give him your airplane i turned him carol and i said god just told me to give ed our airplane she said well i know you you will obey i said well lord you want me to do this privately privately or publicly he said just hold you peace no more than god said that ed just stopped turned to me and said jerry god just told you to do something obey him now he told me later he had no clue he told me later he said i thought you're going to get up and point to somebody over here in the artist and tell them that god's healing them with cancer or whatever because we we'd flow like that from time to time and when i walked up there and told him i'm giving you my airplane he cried like a baby and i said not only that i just want you to know god still hears your prayers amen and i said if you will allow me to fly back to fort worth you can go home with me i'll have my accountant waiting there with the title deed the keys i'll fill it up with fuel and you can fly it back to california and that's what we did okay now i need an airplane worse than i needed that one because the itinerary hasn't changed it's increasing can't get to all the places now i'm believing god for the next airplane then praise god shortly after that the next airplane came shortly after that after i sowed it the next airplane came shortly after that after i sold it i got my first jet a citation 500. amen and now i need a jet man i i need to get up higher and i need to get there faster not on that i had a bible school people were coming from all over the world to our bible school and many times i would teach in the bible school until noon get an airplane go priest and fly back that night and be back in the bible school so i needed a jet now and and god blessed me with my first jet i flew it for 20 years 12 years so did god gave him a second jet same kind citation 500 but with an eagle mod extended wings faster engines hallelujah then the lord told me to sew it and i sowed it into kenneth copeland's ministry because now his children and some of his grandchildren were preaching and the lord said sow it into his ministry for his grandchildren and his children to use so i did then god blessed me with another one that was nine debt-free airplanes ago okay and then as i said last night in a pandemic in september of 2020 god blessed me with my first international jet paid for hallelujah take me anywhere in the world glory to god amen and i'm sharing those testimonies with you because of this i want you to see that it's never god's will for us to just survive it's god's will for us to thrive now you probably don't need a jet you probably don't need an international aircraft you probably don't even need a lawnmower with wings you know but whatever it is you need it matters to god remember what we read last night psalm 115 the lord hath been mindful of us you and what you need is on god's mind not only that but while you're standing here listening to me he's working behind the scenes now the important thing is don't put him in a box don't limit him don't don't don't look to the way he did it before and think that's the only way he can do it no my god is the god of surprises he's the god of surprises hallelujah and he's working on a surprise right now for you hallelujah come on give him your best shout hallelujah hallelujah praise god hallelujah father in the name of jesus i pray over every person with their hand lifted that needs a financial breakthrough a financial miracle and lord it is your will and it is your best that they do not live in lack they do not live in need they do not live and won't the lord is our shepherd we shall not want hallelujah my god supplies all our need according to his riches and glory by christ jesus and if we delight ourselves in him he promises to give us even the desires of our heart so in the name of jesus satan you take your hands off god's people you take your hands off of god's final people's finances and in jesus name we believe that financial breakthroughs financial miracles are headed our way and we lift our hands and we give our god a great shout in advance hallelujah glory glory glory hallelujah hallelujah come on give him a great shout a great show a great show hallelujah glory glory to god sometimes i get so excited i just feel like running and you know what i have some surrogate runners run for me bill run for me eric run for me joe hallelujah do you feel like running take off hallelujah hallelujah glory glory glory thank you gentlemen i feel better now praise god let's lift our hands one more time and just bless the lord hallelujah you know what brother copeland says if you act right in church you won't have to join a gym amen hallelujah father we thank you in advance for the great breakthroughs and miracles that you are arranging right now and we receive them and we give you all the credit and all the honor for it in jesus mighty mighty name amen i want you to come hand up the offering envelopes we're going to receive the morning offering dr savelle i couldn't wait um you know i've been shaking here because obviously i reflect back to 1982 and uh i wanted to get here to sow into your ministry and bless you and we believe in god to pay cash for everything we we've also been supernaturally blessed we're doing everything here paying cash for everything we're putting new balconies in new restrooms new children's church youth facility all the new things for the school the the whole studio b brand new banquet facility the kitchens just everything and we believe in god to pay cash so we i've got to check here i got two checks one for you personally for a hundred thousand and then one for your ministry for a hundred and fifty thousand wow yeah so because i'm not missing on this opportunity we believe in god to see mountains move out of the way we're not boring from any bank yeah and uh amen father i set myself in agreement with pastor rodney and his wife his family in this church and lord i've done this so many times and you have never failed me never let me down my harvest was always extremely larger than my seed no matter how large that seed was you caused my harvest to be even greater because you're the god that does exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think and i set myself in agreement that everything they are believing god for and believing god to do in this ministry this church not only here but all over the world i believe that you are making arrangements for that right now you're speaking to people all over the world to sow into their ministries sow into their hands and we thank you father that you are the unlimited god that you have ways of bringing this to pass that we could never think of but we don't have to try to think of how you're going to do it our responsibility is to believe you can and believe you will and to praise you in advance for it so we do that in jesus name amen and amen praise god thank you sir amen you babysit the options of your hand offering non-bluffs you get that are watching online you can give past eric if you come come and tell them what to do because i'm pretty pretty messed up right now if you haven't already hand the offering envelopes out ask ask the lord what you're supposed to do to be a part of this it's important make your checks out to rmi you can also give by credit card and also you can give through your text message push pay all these directions will be up there text seven seven nine seven seven give rmi another weight associated for everybody watching online right now go to revival.com revival.com or revival.com forward slash giving they'll put all the directions on the screen revival.com forward slash paypal cash app is dollar sign revival ministries put your name first and last name in the memo please and then also if you're watching live on facebook of course all the directions are there youtube super chat you can sow seed that way and uh you heard all the things that we're doing with the balconies and all the other things um you know you can mail a gift and you can mail a check in and they're gonna put the address on the screen uh you lose it and bring it in bring it hither the lord has need of it to river church p.o box 292 888 temple florida 33687 they'll put that up several times hallelujah powerful wow if you if you didn't hallelujah just give you a few more moments to do what the lord's telling you to do once again if you're watching this is the time to sew revival.com revival.comrevival.com you're watching on a rebroadcast sow seed hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hold your offerings in your hand yourself on your computer your offering envelope however you're giving father we thank you we're thriving we're not surviving we're thriving thank you father increase and multiplication and more than enough blueprints strategies from heaven right place right time supernatural favor from heaven in jesus name if you believe it say amen ushers go ahead receive the offering the blessing your children and their children and their children may his favor be upon you and a thousand generations and your family your children and their children and their children may his favor be upon you and a thousand generations and your family and your children and your children he is with hey is is hallelujah wasn't that powerful hallelujah nuggets of truth father we just thank you for this service today we thank you each and every person received everything they needed from heaven in jesus name we receive it we act upon it we live it in jesus name and everyone said amen hallelujah i'm going to release the service for everybody that's not bible school students if you're bible school students then i'm not sure what we're really stay go wow everybody's done we love you we'll see you tonight seven o'clock tonight seven o'clock with dr seville do not miss tonight love you thank you and we bye found 100 million souls billion dollars in the world mission i'm going to be a part of the harvest the nation's shaken it was the last thing that i do we see churches open out there we're gonna see cities open up we have to see nations open we have to see another great awakening if it costs me everything 300 powerful pastors and leaders 390 businessmen darfur and the lower spring the convergence is happening

Channel: Rodney Howard-Browne

Views: 9,314

Rating: 4.9691715 out of 5

Keywords: Rodney Howard-Browne, River Church, River at Tampa Bay Church, Souls, Holy Spirit, Jesus, God, Christian, Revival, Healing, Salvation

Id: EzfRnXByi0c

Length: 211min 5sec (12665 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021